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T20 World Cup: Former batter Sanjay Manjrekar urged India to adopt a humble approach and focus on rectifying key flaws, pinpointing three critical areas for improvement, following their Super Eight opener loss to South Africa in the T20 World Cup.
South Africa's emphatic triumph, 187/7 proving too challenging for India, exposed significant tactical and technical vulnerabilities as the hosts crumbled to 111.
Manjrekar said on his Instagram post, “A big defeat to India against South Africa. So, the first strong team that India has played, and they have not really coped well against that team. But the good news is that India is not out of the tournament.”
He stated that India's reply to this setback will be required, suggesting the defeat could eventually prove useful if it sparks necessary adjustments and growth.
“So what South Africa have done–and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and in a way thank them–is that they have shown us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and end up getting into the final rounds and hopefully win the title," he added.
Manjrekar pinpointed India's vulnerability against spin as a critical issue.
“The first area of concern is an obvious one: India is struggling against spin. So how do you solve that? Try to rearrange the batting order in a way that naturally good players of spin are batting up the order, and people like Tilak Varma, who is struggling a little bit, can come down the order,” he said.
He also emphasised the team's vulnerability to pace-off deliveries, a problem deepened by captain Suryakumar Yadav's struggles in this area.
“The other thing which was glaring in this game against South Africa was even the pace bowlers, when they take the pace off, Indian batters are struggling. The captain seemed like the one who struggled most now when the pace is taken off,” Manjrekar said.
Manjrekar suggested that Kuldeep Yadav's inclusion could equip an additional wicket-taking option, as Varun Chakravarthy's struggles against South Africa exposed India's vulnerability.
“The third is an easily solvable problem. When the batting is uncertain, not firing, you very often try to get more batting depth. There's another way to cover that weakness, and that is by having a stronger bowling attack. So get Kuldeep Yadav in,” the former India batter said.
“So yes, try and make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more complex problems… If done quickly, India still has a great chance of getting into the final rounds,” he concluded.